Abstract
This is the first study of HIV / STD knowledge, attitudes, and risk behaviors in the Hmong-American community. This exploratory study describes the self-reported HIV / STD knowledge, attitudes, and risk behaviors of 299 Hmong-American 7th - 12th grade students in nine public junior and senior high schools using bilingual questionnaires. Findings supported our hypotheses that Hmong-American adolescents had relatively low levels of risky behaviors, were significantly less likely to answer HIV / STD culturally specific knowledge and attitude items correctly than general knowledge and attitude items, and that their level of acculturation was positively related to their HIV / STD knowledge and attitudes. In addition, we found that Hmong-American adolescents had higher levels of knowledge about HIV/STD and more desirable attitudes toward HIV / STD than originally predicted. Finally, we found that the age, grade, sex, and marital status of the Hmong adolescents in our study were significantly related to either their HIV / STD knowledge or attitudes.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 37-46 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Sex Education and Therapy |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 1-2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 1999 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Preparation of this article was supported in part by resources and assistance from the Program in Human Sexuality, Department of Family Practice and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School; Lao Family Community, Inc.; and the Minnesota Department of Health, AIDS/STD Prevention Services Section, which provided funding for the project and the project evaluation. Credit goes to Deb Finstad for data entry and analysis; Libby Frost and Priscilla Palm for manuscript preparation; and Greg Sax for literature and library searches. Thanks go to our colleagues Simon Rosser and Robin Manthei for their editing and review of the earlier drafts and our department editor, Anne Marie Weber-Main, for her comprehensive editing of the manuscript revisions.
